Report on Southern Outrages.
By Editor
Our readers, before whom we have laid from time to time the facts of the outrages in the Southern States, derived from the action of State Executives, and the narratives in our exchanges, will be prepared for the report of the Senate Committee upon the Ku-Klux outrages at the South. The report pertains almost exclusively to intimidation, violence, robbery, and murder, in North Carolina, from whence the 52 witnesses examined have been principally drawn, although the committee say that complaints of like outrages have come from South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, and Tennessee. The witnesses named have been drawn, it must be remembered, from both political parties, 29 being Radicals, and 21 Democrats, and one, a minister who had no political relations. These witnesses were in four instances members of the Ku-Klux organization. The general facts of the investigation are important. They show beyond question that there is a secret oath-bound organization known as the Ku-Klux, but whose various self-imposed titles are, “The White Brotherhood,” “The Constitutional Union Guard,” “The Invisible Empire,” etc. The members of this organization are exclusively derived from the Democratic party, and its operations are made to enure to the advantage of that party. It includes a large number of ex-Confederate soldiers among its numbers. There is also the clearest testimony as to its acts of violence, robbery, and murder, of Union men with the view of frightening them so they dare not vote, driving them out of the country, or getting permanently rid of them by taking their lives. The report shows that in Alamance Co., North Carolina, between Dec. 1, 1868, and Dec. 22, 1870, there were 38 cases of violence, embracing two murders, one mutilation, and many whippings, of negroes. In 11 counties in North Carolina, the Committee have the names of 90 blacks and 44 whites, nearly all of whom were whipped, and the remainder shot, robbed, hanged, or driven from their homes. In general, no disposition has been shown to punish, or it has been impossible to punish the perpetrators of these crimes. In view of these startling facts, Congress would be shamefully recreant in duty if it should refuse to act. We trust that the Joint Committee of the Senate and House, to whom the preparation of a bill upon the subject has been committed, may, while keeping in safe constitutional limits, be able to present an effective measure.—Detroit Tribune.